I was very pleased to see the new memorial monument adjacent to the Hampton Inn in Staten Island’s Corporate Park honoring the Staten Islanders who were killed in Vietnam, “The 84 Plus One.”

The monument is particularly meaningful to me, because it’s dedicated to a true hero — veterans leader and civic activist Michael J. Cocozza, a man who made looking after veterans his life’s work.

Cocozza, who passed away after a series of painful health ailments, which were no doubt exacerbated by the Agent Orange and other chemicals he was exposed to in Vietnam, has been lauded as a veterans leader time and again.

I think, though, that every Staten Islander should pay a visit to the monument, not only to honor Cocozza for his work for veterans but for the lengths he went to on a daily basis to help everyone he came into contact with.

He was my closest friend (and I’m far from the only one who makes that claim) and I hope everyone will visit the memorial not only on occasions that honor veterans, but all year around to properly honor Cocozza for what a community pillar he was seven days a week.